A Braves blog of statistics, numbers, and CPA-driven analysis about Atlanta and the rest of the NL East.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Braves @ Cubs: Game 1 Recap

Jeff Samardzija continued to pitch well and get lucky last night. Hinske hit one on the nose that could have tied for the game for us, but instead it was caught for a double play. Marmol walked two guys in a row and tossed a wild pitch, and we couldn't cash in. Add that to the fact the bullpen didn't hold up down the stretch, and you had one big ole mess of a game. Also, it turned into a plunk fest, and Fredi G got run for the first time this season. The sad part was he didn't even deserve it. It's fairly obvious that it's going to take a real dustup to get Fredi to lose it in Coxian fashion. I say get your money's worth Fredi.

The Cubs acted like a bunch of punks last night. That's what drives me up a wall about the game. This is baseball, not the NBA. All the fist pumping, chest thumping, BS has no place in our game. Marmol was especially obnoxious, and I hope he gets lit up for the rest of the season. Yeah, get all jacked up you cut-rate closer who just got moved to the 8th inning because you can't throw strikes. You got lucky, punk. It won't happen again. Also, I don't want to get into a bean-war with Chicago. We're already on edge with all the Hamels suspension crap. The last thing we need is one of our guys getting tossed because we try to retaliate for a bad call. That said, go ahead and toss at Uggla or Hinske, Cubs. You freaking pansies. We'll see how that works out.

Oh and Samardzija said this about hitting Heyward, "He came out and got that ball there that he hit the home run on that was down and away. I thought he was kind of diving over the plate, and I wanted to throw one in there and go back away. It got in there too tight." That's crap. You hit the guy in the middle of the back on a fastball, you tool. And you know what you did it? Because you're a candyass who got taken deep on a crappy pitch. Enjoy your stint on a team that has no chance at the playoffs, you hack.

So, now that I've got that off my chest we look at the actual numbers. They suck. Chip, Pastornicky, and Heyward all played really well. Bourn did everything he could to go on base. The rest of the lineup? God awful. Prado and Freeman at least worked a walk, but had no hits. BMac and Uggla were terrible. This is something I'm going to start harping on with BMac especially, because he's our cleanup hitter, and he's batting .237 on the season with 3 strikeouts last night in key ABs. I can't live with that as a fan. I also can't live with 0-8 by the team with RISP for the night. We had a serious chance with runners on 2nd and 3rd in the 8th, down by 2 runs, and only 1 out. Both BMac and Uggs struck out. That's unacceptable. You HAVE to put action on the ball in that scenario and push across the run. Very frustrating.

Some of you will say, but we just came off a sweep, cut them some slack. Listen, this isn't about having a bad night hitting the ball. That happens. What we can't allow is key strikeouts no matter what else has been going on with our lineup. We can't have our 4-5 hitters in the lineup get K'd 6 times in a game. I don't care if we are coming off 10 wins in a row, because if that happens, we're going to lose the game. I fully expect Uggla to bounce back and get some more action on the ball this series. I also expect McCann to steadily improve his low average. What I want them to do in this series is be big when it matters, and not let the worst team in the NL Central give us a hard time.

On to tonight. I'll be the negative guy here and say the numbers don't stack up in our favor on this matchup at all. Dempster has the best ERA in the majors and we're tossing Delgado at him. Ugh. Who knows, though? That's why they play the games. Hit him hard, boys. We're gonna need some runs!

2 comments:

Unfortunately, I agree. That's why we need to nip these things in the bud. We can put up big runs in a few games, but it's important to be able to win the 2-3 run games as well without blowing it late.

About Me

I come home from a long day of cranking the adding machine, and during baseball season I know that almost every night at 7PM, the Braves will be there. They are like a comforting sports night lite. I fully admit to doing the Chop in my own living room, by myself, in order to get a rally going. I also admit to getting entirely too involved in the games by yelling at the TV. My neighbors probably think I'm insane. They may be correct.
I'm also a devout Christian, and a friend of Jesus. I enjoy discussing the Bible and teaching a class at my local church.